Thankful for orderly Democracy

Like a lot of you, most of us here at the Frontiersman breathed a deep sigh of relief when we went to bed Tuesday night.

We’d made it through another election season, sleep deprived and a little banged up but still in one piece. In light of the historic levels of money spent, hot air expended and ink spilled on this election, we consider surviving these long months an accomplishment in itself.

But while we were happy to see this season end, we also are grateful to the people just put us through this civic exercise — some of them, anyway.

We wanted to say thank you to the politicians, the winners and the losers, who decided to run. It’s not an easy job, one few of us here think we would be willing to take on ourselves. Elected officials are the first to take heat when things go wrong and the last to be given credit when they go well.

And, especially on a local level, where the positions don’t come with high-dollar salaries and a cushy lifestyle, they aren’t materially rewarding. And the hours spent away from family can never be regained.

We also want to thank the even more poorly paid volunteers and staffers who toil behind the scenes managing events and coordinating appearances. Candidates only look as good as they do because they have hard working people supporting them.

Also — thank you everyone in our local races who managed to get to November without engaging in too much name-calling and dirty tricks. We had the usual someone-damaged-our-signs complaints but there was exceedingly little in the way of what we would call personal attacks.

Actually, now that we think about it, none of these candidates locally tried to duck or dodge our calls, as has been the case during past campaigns. We reached everyone we needed to and they answered our questions. Even if sometimes the answers weren’t as specific as we’d have liked, we at least got answers.

And, finally, we say this a lot but we repeat it again because we still think it’s a remarkable fact of life in America — we are very glad that we live in a place where politics is a non-violent affair. We are glad that Americans expect one another to live with the results achieved at the polls once the dust has settled.

That we have free, fair and peaceful elections puts us in an elite group of countries and that fact is one for which we should be eternally grateful.

So thanks, everyone, who participated in this peaceful transition of power.

Still, we’re glad it’s over. Maybe it’s too much to ask, but can we consider taking some time off now before we start arguing over the 2016 election?

Please? Six months. That’s all we ask.